In the opening installment of the Visual Century Collection, the division of South African culture is shown through the polarization of art forms within South Africa.

Visual Century: South African Art is a four-volume publication that reappraises South African visual art of the 20th century from a postapartheid perspective. It is the only publication that provides an overview of a century of South African art, with in-depth discussion by leading art historians and reproduction of a large number of artworks, providing readers with fresh perspectives on complexities that still resonate today. The first volume in this series begins after the South African War when efforts were made to unify the white 'races' and the period encompasses two world wars, the incremental dispossession of the rights of black South Africans, and the rise of organized black South African resistance to white rule. This volume provides critical perspectives on the ideological and institutional frameworks for white and black artists of the period, and the art they produced. Discussions of public art and architecture, traditionalist African art, and Western-style painting and sculpture are complemented with consideration of the roles played by museums, training, art societies and exhibitions, art historical writing, and patronage.